The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group works to help people whose rights have been violated and investigates cases involving such abuse, as well as assessing the overall human rights situation in Ukraine. The Group also seeks to develop awareness of human rights issues through public events and its various publications

General Prosecutors office acknowledged that Goncharov was murdered in the preliminary prison

According to the official conclusion of forensic expertise, death of Igor Goncharov, an ex-officer of the Directorate for Fighting the Organized Crime (DFOC), was caused by a spinal trauma. This information was communicated by Sergiy Rudenko, the head of the press-service of the General Prosecutors office, at a briefing. By his words, on 13 May the General Prosecutors office instituted the criminal case against the workers of preliminary prison No. 13 after the fact of misuse of powers, which resulted in Goncharovs death. Rudenko said that “any other reasons of Goncharovs death are not official”. It is known that the British newspaper “Independence” informed, with the reference to the results of the expertise, that Goncharov could die as a result of injection of a narcotic drug “Tiopental”. “People can say anything they want, but there are real facts”, said Rudenko.

We want to remind that Goncharov, who was accused by the General Prosecutors office in organization of the gang of militiamen-“turnskins”, perished in the preliminary prison on 1 August 2003. He managed to pass through his advocate a number of letters and appeals, in which he declared that the murder of Georgiy Gongadze had been committed by the gang of “Kisel” with participation of the DFOC officers by order of then Minister of Interior Yuri Kravchenko and President Leonid Kuchma.